There has been conventionally used a touch panel configured such that when a user contacts the touch panel, preset menu buttons are displayed in response to the contact point, and when the touch panel is temporarily de-touched (the user separates a finger or the like contacting the touch panel from it) and then the user contacts the menu button again, a predetermined function is executed.
However, there was a problem that since a display screen on a portable terminal is small and the menu buttons displayed on the first contact are correspondingly small, objects such as link information displayed around the menu buttons are erroneously selected when the touch panel is contacted again.
In the technique described in Patent Document 1, there is configured such that when a user contacts a touch panel, four regions assigned with predetermined functions in four directions about the contact point, respectively, are displayed, and when the touch panel is temporarily de-touched and the user contacts a region assigned with any function again, the predetermined function is executed.